Russia handed visiting NATO Secretary General Mr George Robertson its proposals on European anti-missile defence today. Moscow sees it as an alternative to the US National Missile Defence (NMD) system.
The priority for us is to achieve a common understanding, Mr Robertson told Defence Minister Mr Igor Sergeyev at the start of a day of talks with leading Russian officials due to culminate in the opening of a NATO information office in Moscow.
Col-Gen Leonid Ivashov said Russia's three-stage plan for non-strategic anti-missile defence - which puts closer assessment of the threat and political efforts before military hardware - would keep existing arms accords intact.
Mr Ivashov, who heads the Defence Ministry's foreign relations department, said the proposal was radically different from what the US is proposing.
He said it was not a defence for the whole of European territory - only a part - the main part of European territory .
Russia has been alarmed by US plans to push ahead with NMD, which Moscow believes would undermine the cornerstone 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty (ABM) and trigger a new arms race.